My best work yet...so i think

If you have been following my maps from the begining then this one takes the cake. I have put a lot of effort into this map and making it one of my best. I know its not perfect (belive me i know), but i put a lot of suggestions from my critiques of my other maps into this one. And with that, here are the pics....

Looking at the warehouse, notice my framing of the doors....credit goes to Sim for bugging me enough to do it the right way :biggrin:



On top of the warehouse looking at the pipes, the sewers, and the fule storage building (compleat with exploding barrels)



On top of the warehouse looking at the docks



The Inside of the warehouse

Considering your, ahem, other maps, this is a huge improvement :biggrin:

My comments:

First Image: Align that Red trim thats going up.

Second Image: Put something on top of that fence (like a border) because you can see the texture thats on the side on the top, and it looks "ewww"...

Third image: That wood texture on the docks is really repeditive, and some what annoying.

But, it looks nice (like teh truck!)

r_speeds please.

Also, you can see the water just sort of ends... what the heck?

:smile: HAHA thanks Vash, i know my "other Maps" are anything but :biggrin: . Thanks for the info, and about the water, Sim told me how to end it, like in my map op4_harbor the water just ends, but due to some errors that i would get when i decided to fix the water just ending i decided not to fix it, I know i should but...ya know. Thanks for the input guys and im glad you guys think i made such an improvement...it gives me hope! :smile: :smile:

What is so hard about doing a proper sky texture?

And the lighting really is annoying.. maybe thats because the time of day ( Dawn or Dusk ) does not match the sky texture.

I do like the wharehouse.. and the idea. The docks are a cool idea. Just something does not look right about them to me.

Its not a bad effort at all.. in fact its quite nice. If you need pictures of some real Army - military motorpools, or storage facilities, let me know.. Ill snap a few shots for you of the ones here at Fort Bliss.

As for the huge crane, is that for loading? Because the army has these cement back up block areas that they use to load trucks. I'll get you a picture..

($)

Thanks MoneyShot, i would appreciate it. About the sky texturing though, im still a noob by anybodies standards and im still screwing around with it practicing. So untill i have that under my belt, i didnt want to spend 2hrs of my time waiting for a map to compile just to find out the sky was wrong (its wrong anyways but you know what i mean). If all this encouragement keeps up i might develop an ego :cool:

Make small test map's trying out lighting and sky techniques :smile:

Ha ha, belive it or not Vash, i have never tried that....great idea! :biggrin:

its good practice for ALL yer entity combinations....i have tons of maps with a lotta s**t crammed in them for this very reason....and i still refer to them alot.....more than i'd like actually.... :biggrin:

Doc Brass... :dodgy:

This is a huge improvement on what you posted before. Very well done :smile: This is how I see your progression in mapping so far:

• First you made enormous boxes with some blocky buildings in them.
• Then you made big boxes with some interesting shapes in them.
• Now you've made a smaller box with much more interesting and realistic stuff in it. This map also has a theme.

For the next step, maybe you could try....takes a deep breath....not making boxes! Instead of creating a large box and filling it with stuff, how about building several rooms and connecting them?

I agree this is a good improvement, and I would say that the main thing for you to do on this map is change the colour of the light_enviroment... the sun may look yellowish, but if you put a white piece of paper on the floor, it does not look yellow due to the sun's yellowness... just a slightly off white colour will look allot better I think.

OK the dock texture is lame, change it for something else definitely. You need to make the wheels on the truck func_wall, they are doing some wierd shadow stuff. For the coast might I advise looking at cs_bikini map, also make it so you die when you fall into it.

The crane is also odd... It seems pointless. I'd section the map off a little and make the crane more of a good feature, maybe look into making some effect by using the switch to close off a door or crush people...

Awsome thanks for the imput guys, im glad you all agree that its my best work so far. Like i said before, I plan to become a better mapper, and im glad its showing....

To Gollum, I am curently working on a map, that is NOT, i repeat, NOT a box :biggrin: . I am looking at the map bootcamp to see how they put things together. Thanks agian for the input Gollum, i always appreciate it! :biggrin:

theres something not right with the further away warehouse in pic1, texture???
the crain looks like a giant swing, sorry but thats just what i think, theres a sweet crain near where i live, ill try and get some pics for ya.
i dont like the texture used on the street (dock) lamps, looks too rusty.
i like the docking idea, but looking at the size of it wouldnt be able to house bigger ships.

=========I I
I I
** I I
_____________I I__________

*being the smaller boats
just a idea.
ya can also put in a dry dock, boats on the back of trucks, sunken boats and rope, lots of rope!
nice work, wish i could do something like that!

We still haven't seen the R's yet....

Dammit I must stop this work-avoidance.

haha, i dont think you guys want to know the R's on this map, trust me on that one. But i will post them all the same as soon as i get some time. I do remember however that on one of my other maps someone asked me the R's were and Orpheus said that i shouldnt be too concerned with them at this point in my mapping. I really know nothing about how to lower them, or prevent them from being higher. I did make a post once about it, but it was a little over my head, the feed back i mean. I know there an intrical part of the maps and should defenetly be considered, but right now im just over joyed with the fact that my map is working and is such an improvement over my other stuff.

you definitely seem to be improving, good work. perseverence is the most important 'skill' a mapper can have, really, because it's a time consuming thing to learn and do. that, and the ability to take criticism

and my usual plug of my rspeed tutorials:

http://www.cryotank.net/maps/tutorials/index.html

(hey, I made them so I wouldn't have to explain it every time someone freaking asked! :biggrin: )

Thanks a lot Jinx, This helps a lot!

I'll try and get a critique up in the next day. I'm busy right now but the pics look nice. You will find that r's are much better indoors, so there won't be so much to worry about. Of course, some things in your maps can be pulled off with reasonable r's to some extent, but probably not something you could do yet. That said, the outdoor maps are quite nice. When you make a map you might want to plan it out on paper, even if you start making it in WC/VHE. I have great difficulty trying to draw out a decent map on paper and then translating it into VHE without completely changing my map. Maybe trying a really rough outline on paper would be better, just to make sure the r's are ok, then get straight to Hammer while it's fresh in your head. Whatever way works best I suppose.

Take your time Sim. I appreciate any feed back i get.

I dont know if its just me, but that last half of your post kinda went over my head, about drawing on paper before you map. Are you saying its good to do, or bad to do? And im guessing that knowing your R's will come with time for you to be able to map them on paper.

You can never be sure what the R's will be until you see the finished map, but with experience you can get better at guessing them.

Some people like to plan a map's layout on paper before they start. I favour this approach, but not too strictly. I like to draw 3D sketches rather than detailed 2D floorplans, since this allows me to incorporate vertical elements better. Simple 2D floorplans also help.

Ronin said:
haha, i dont think you guys want to know the R's on this map, trust me on that one. But i will post them all the same as soon as i get some time. I do remember however that on one of my other maps someone asked me the R's were and Orpheus said that i shouldnt be too concerned with them at this point in my mapping. I really know nothing about how to lower them, or prevent them from being higher. I did make a post once about it, but it was a little over my head, the feed back i mean. I know there an intrical part of the maps and should defenetly be considered, but right now im just over joyed with the fact that my map is working and is such an improvement over my other stuff.

i find it humorous to think, someone remembers my comments about r's, when i am such a nazi about them :smile:

i think i should reiterate, always keep r_speeds in the back of your mind, but also learn from them, what works and what doesn't.. look at other peoples works, notice their failures, EVEN IF that individual doesn't consider it one exactly. also try to recreate successful areas.. you will learn a s**tload about technique because in almost every case you WILL fail to recreate it, if it is indeed a successful area, the r's will almost always be higher.

the pics look much better than before.. nice job, and watch those r's :wink:

HAHA, thanks Orpheus. I appreciate the input a lot. I feel like im at that turning point from newbie, to intermediate newbie....HAHA, IM ADVANCING!!! :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

in the "diffuse light" parameters for the light_env use a blue/grey color with maybe half the intensity of your primary yellow color.

I have revamped op4_docks from what it used to look like

to this:

The R's now only top at 2600, insted of 4000, a very nice cut back. Still not as smoth as silk in some spaces, but for the most part its a heck of a lot better than my first relese.